Fewer pollinators mean trouble for crops

[TechBear_Seattle]

Fewer pollinators mean trouble for crops

...

Honeybees and bumblebees have been infected by the introduction of a parasite, while destruction of cave roosts has led to a decline in the bat population, according to a report released Wednesday by the National Research Council.

Other pollinator declines may also be associated with habitat loss but more research is needed to make sure, according to the council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences.

More detailed research has been done in Europe, where declines and even extinctions of pollinators have been documented.

...

Yet honeybees, which pollinate more than 90 commercially grown crops, are one of the most affected pollinators. Indeed, honeybees had to be imported from outside North America last year for the first time since 1922, the report said.

The full article can be read at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061018/ap_on_sc/birds_and_bees

[SpiralHawk]

1. BushCo Farm Plan: "We'll get the proles to do the pollinating"

So there is absolutely nothing to worry about. There is a "job" in your future after all. Don't let these liberal eco-weenies scare you with reality.

The republicons are totally on top of the issue, and you can rest assured they will find a way to make themselves a MASSIVE PROFIT out of this dilemma using your labor. Besides, as the republicons say, this is an effective way to rid our planet of excess population, so there will be more for the self-designated "elites."

So rest easy.

Big BushCo really does loves you.

[dipsydoodle]

2. Bees.

I couldn't understand why one of my customers was happy to take out a 4 year contract on a curtain side flat bed truck based on a trivial mileage. Turned out that all that it's used for is to pick up beehives from the local port and deliver them, more or less in the same county ,once a week if that. Apparently a German guy figure some years ago that putting a hive in a large commercial tomato greenhouse was far more efficient than the old method of hand pollination.

Imagine doing that for job - pollinating tomatoes by hand all day using a small paintbrush.
Guess they singalong to this while they do it : http://nashville.about.com/od/nashvilledining/a/tomatoes_2.htm

[Kali]

3. Story didn't have much detail, but if it's tracheal mites in honeybees

this story is OLD. First they are not native to the US, second I talked to a beeman several years ago and he seemed to be looking forward to more Africanization of the local populations, as they were aparently hardier. Plenty of wild hives around here (SE AZ). And yes they are aggressive b*stards!

[kestrel91316]

4. I hear the Africanized bees are GREAT honey producers, too.

[TechBear_Seattle]

6. I don't think the news is about the honeybee parasites specifically

But about the loss of a wide diversity of pollenators, including bees, bats, moths and other critters. Also, the article mentioned that honey bees had to be imported to the US this year for the first time in many decades because there weren't enough bees to do the job. And the problem is worse in Europe.

The trend is majorly important. What is going to happen as fewer wheat, corn, rice and soy plants get pollinated, which would mean less of these crops. Apples, grapes, all fruit crops... same problem: no pollenation means no production.

[LostinVA]

5. You hardly ever see honey bees or bumbles any more

And, I like them! They never sting you (unless you step on one in the clover).

[irislake]

7. In one year

bumblebees have dwindled from many to a few. Ditto dragonflies and gnats. Wild honeybees which thronged around my flowers in the past vanished a few years ago. Now the frogs are disappearing. I am 68 years old. My friends and I don't think the earth will survive even our lifetime. I just weep for my grandchildren. They will not grow up. It's too late already to save the earth. I wish to hell I could believe in The Rapture. SOYLENT GREEN has come true in my lifetime. Thank the bloody corporations. I cannot understand why those who profit from such suicidal corruption don't care about their children and grandchildren. The Pentagon warned last year or the year before that the global warming issue was far more important than terrorism.

[pscot]

8. And yet, our economic model

is based on ever increasing population. Sometimes I feel like I'm watching a slow-motion train wreck. I'm about your age. It's hard to make younger folks understand how much has already been lost. I believe, with you, that we are in some sort of end game. The future looks very bad.

[shanti]

9. pollinate? no need for that

with GM produce locked up. :eyes:

[TechBear_Seattle]

11. Genetic modification can't change certain fundamentals about botany

Like, for example, the fact that wheat, soy, rice, corn, rye, barley, apples, grapes, cherries, apricots, walnuts, almonds, oranges, grapefruit... in fact, every fruit and grain require pollination in order to develop. Even "self pollinating" species require that pollen from one flower be transmitted to another flower for the crop to develop. And while some few foodcrops can be pollinated by wind, the use of pollinating insects can increase yields ten-fold and more.

Unless botanists have discovered, developed and kept entirely secret several groundbreaking discoveries, genetic modification won't be a solution.

[anotherdrew]

10. the entire web of life is falling apart, we're doomed folks n/t

[Barrett808]

12. Look on the bright side: rats and cockroaches will be fine...

...and will survive to repopulate the world after the eco-cataclysm ends in a few hundred thousand years.